


Slowly

by nyaheato



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, One Shot, Ship isn't textual but is very much implied
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26336482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nyaheato/pseuds/nyaheato
Summary: Goh turned over in bed, propping himself up on his elbow. “You have a good voice.” He was afraid that his words might shatter it, the moonlight, the blue, the brightly silver voice below him.OrA miscellaneous collection of (mostly) missing scenes from Journeys involving Ash and Goh.
Relationships: Gou | Goh & Satoshi | Ash Ketchum, Gou | Goh/Satoshi | Ash Ketchum
Comments: 8
Kudos: 121





	1. 002

**Author's Note:**

> some oneshots/missing scenes of ash and goh from journeys! i didn't think these warranted being posted on their own so i'm posting them together :p this will very likely continue to be updated with more of these as i write them. hope you enjoy

“Where exactly are we?!” Ash’s voice rang out across the meadow as he leapt up from his seat on the ground.

Goh squinted up at the sky, Lugia’s receding form silhouetted a gentle gray against the late afternoon sun. He sighed. Yeah, they were stuck.

Wait, he realized, the sun…

“Lugia took us east of Vermillion City, right? So let’s follow th—“

“This way!” Ash declared, seizing Goh’s hand and marching in a seemingly random direction, dragging the brunet along behind him.

“Wh— How do you know?!” Goh demanded. Leftover adrenaline from their joyride on Lugia’s back had his heart racing and palms sweating. He hoped Ash didn’t think it was gross.

Ash met his eyes over his shoulder with a confident grin. “I can totally feel it in my gut! We’re going the right way. Right, Pikachu?”

Pikachu chirped an affirmation and Ash’s grin grew. Goh shielded his eyes. Well, they were heading towards the setting sun, so Ash had been correct. A funny feeling in Goh’s chest suggested that, even if Ash had picked a different direction, Goh would’ve followed him anyway, though.

He sighed again, smiling this time, and wiggled his fingers, hand still trapped in Ash’s as he pulled him along. Ash didn’t look back at him, somehow seemingly deep in conversation with Pikachu, but gave his hand an absentminded squeeze. Goh smiled wider.

What a strange and beautiful new friend he had made.


	2. 030.1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ash’s voice trailed off, his gaze fixed on something Goh couldn’t see. He looked… deflated. Goh fidgeted in his seat.

Pikachu was missing.

A few hours after Delia had left the institute, Goh was still pouring over pokémon data with the professor when a ruffled looking Ash burst into the room, Riolu hanging off his shoulder.

“Hey, have you guys seen Pikachu lately?” He was distracted, eyes jittery, moving around the room like a busy combee searching for flowers.

“Um, the last time I saw it was when your mom left…” Goh replied slowly, swiveling around in his chair to face his friend. He rarely saw Ash like this. “But since then, I haven’t seen it.”

Professor Cerise nodded in agreement. 

“I thought it went with you and Riolu to train?” Goh added.

Ash had apparently finished his search of the room, because he was now stationary in the center of it, facing Goh and the professor and practically vibrating in place. “I know, I thought so too! But when it was Pikachu’s turn to train after Riolu, it wasn’t there! And none of the other pokémon at the Institute know where it is either…”

Ash’s voice trailed off, his gaze fixed on something Goh couldn’t see. He looked… deflated. Goh fidgeted in his seat.

“Well… I’ll help you look for it!” he announced determinedly, rising from his chair to stand in front of Ash. “If we work together and look for Pikachu, we’ll find it for sure.”

Ash stared at Goh for a moment, unchanged, but then visibly brightened. “Yeah, you’re right! We’ll definitely find Pikachu.” He turned and looked Goh directly in the eye then, smiling, and even though his image stood out in bright, sharp relief against the rest of the world, Goh thought, something about him was softer in that moment. “Thank you, Goh.” 

“I—Um. Yeah, of course!” Goh sputtered, flustered for a reason that floated just out of his reach. “Let’s go look upstairs. I mean—Uh. Professor?” 

Goh looked to Cerise for permission to leave and was met with a smile. “Go ahead and help Ash, Goh. I can handle these data myself.”

“Right!” Goh replied, and then, with a burst of energy unlike himself, grabbed Ash by the wrist and made a beeline for the stairs. Ash cried out in surprise but didn’t shake himself free, stumbling and laughing along behind him.


	3. 030.2

A gentle, melodic voice lulled Goh slowly out of sleep, blinking softly into the blue, moonlit room. He lied awake and listened, holding his breath. Something in the air felt rare and fragile like a bubble, and he didn’t dare break it. 

Eventually, the singing trailed off with a chuckle, and then a few murmured words that Goh couldn’t make out before silence settled over the room like a soft blanket.

Goh turned over in bed, propping himself up on his elbow. “You have a good voice.” He was afraid that his words might shatter it, the moonlight, the blue, the brightly silver voice below him. 

There was a rustling from below, and then Ash’s head with his messy black hair popped into view. Goh found the bubble preserved.

“You were listening?” he asked with a slightly teasing smile. “Man, I totally thought you were asleep.”

“I mean—Uh! No! You totally just woke me up, um… just now.” Goh could feel his face heating up and shut his mouth, pressing his lips into a line. 

Ash’s smile grew. The moon washed his hair indigo and eyes silver. “Okay, okay,” he relented. “It’s fine if you were, you know.”

Goh let the words fade into the night, the quiet open and comfortable. His gaze drifted over to Pikachu, the tiny body rising and falling in sleep on the pillow next to Ash. When Goh glanced back at Ash, Ash was still looking at him. Goh felt the room humming softly. The rest of the world didn’t exist.

“You know, your mom told us earlier that you and Pikachu didn’t get along at first. Is that really true?” Ash and Pikachu were so in sync, it was hard for Goh to imagine. 

As if on cue, the pokémon nuzzled into Ash’s side, still asleep. Ash chuckled and stroked a hand down its body. “Yeah, actually. Me and Pikachu really clashed at first.” He turned back to look at Goh. “But I think it was just because we didn’t really understand each other yet.”

“Did something happen? To change that, I mean,” Goh asked.

Ash laughed again, but there was a bitter tinge to it. “Pretty much right after we set off on our journey, I ticked off a wild spearow and it and the rest of its flock ended up chasing after us and attacking us. Pikachu got hurt pretty bad.

“When the spearow caught up with us, I begged Pikachu to go into its pokéball, but it refused. So I just did the best I could to protect it, which wasn’t much. Honestly, I wasn’t sure either of us were gonna make it out of there in one piece.” He smiled ruefully.

“But then Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder, and shocked all the spearow with this huge Thunderbolt, like _boom!_ It was pretty amazing.” Ash paused and looked down at Pikachu again, his expression soft. Something in Goh’s chest twinged.

“I think that’s when Pikachu started to trust me. It realized that I really cared about it and wanted to protect it. We got close really quickly after that.” 

Goh saw Ash, impossibly tall, silhouetted against a bright light, arms outstretched as if to catch the world. Remembered feeling a spark, a scattered whisper that said, _this one is something else._ Recalled the sensation of every impossible thing melting away, surging into reach.

He thought about saying it, but didn’t want the blue and the moon to go away, the humming to subside. “I think I understand,” Goh said, and left it at that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if the dialogue in this one sounds familiar. no it doesn't❤️


	4. 016

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Goh’s pulse jumped at the proximity of Ash’s stupid feverish face. He turned away. Ash was totally going to give him all of the germs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sickfic sickfic sickfic

Goh’s insides turned to ice as he watched Ash’s body tense and then relax, bonelessly collapsing in on itself. His mind went blank as Ash fell but he knew he had to do something—but Gengar was already there, holding Ash in its arms. Goh found his brain functioning again and hurried over to them, peering worriedly down at his friend’s prone form.

Ash’s eyes were slitted, his head lolling, barely aware and fading. Goh called his name a few times, urgently, but to no avail; his eyes slipped closed and Goh couldn’t get him to open them.

He stared, pulse thundering in his throat and ears, face burning. A shiver wracked his body and he realized he could no longer feel his hands, the white noise spreading to his brain.

_Oh Arceus, what do I do? What do I do, what do I do, what do I do, what do I—_

Suddenly, everything snapped back into focus, and even though Goh’s body still wasn’t quite obeying him, he found he was able to interact with the world around him again. With a start, he realized that Pikachu had climbed onto his shoulder and now seemed to be chirping desperately at both him and Ash.

Goh laid a palm upon Ash’s forehead, finding it burning hot. Okay, so he had probably passed out from fever. Goh felt himself calm considerably, but still…

“Gengar, could you teleport us back to the Institute, please?” He was sure the professor would know what to do.

The pokémon nodded. Goh blinked and the five of them were standing in the room he shared with Ash.

First things first. “Can I—” Goh held out his arms and Gengar seemed to understand, although it hesitated before gently depositing Ash into them.

He struggled under the dead weight for a moment but managed to recover, clutching the unconscious boy to his chest. Ash shifted in his grip and murmured something unintelligible, brow furrowed. He was warm. Goh felt whatever panic simmered below the surface abate at the tangible signs of life.

Placing Ash gently onto his bed, Goh carefully pulled the covers up over his chest before hurrying out of the room to find Professor Cerise.

As Goh had suspected, the professor confirmed that Ash had a fever, and not even a worryingly high one at that. If he hadn’t been running around all day, Goh figured, he probably wouldn’t have even passed out. But that was Ash for you.

So, for now, Goh was wetting a washcloth with cold water in their shared bathroom. Emerging from the bathroom, he approached the bottom bunk and gingerly placed the washcloth on Ash’s forehead, whose expression smoothed somewhat at the contact.

Goh settled into the chair he’d set up at Ash’s bedside, Scorbunny hopping from the bed to his lap. Pikachu was curled up on Ash’s stomach, small brown eyes focused on its trainer’s face. When Goh had returned to his and Ash’s shared room with the professor, Gengar had vanished, but Goh had a feeling the pokémon was still nearby, waiting and watching over Ash the same way he was.

A groan emanated from the form on the bed in front of Goh, and then Ash was stirring. As his eyes blinked open, Scorbunny bounded from Goh’s lap to Ash’s side, both it and Pikachu peering down at him raptly.

Goh leaned forward in his seat, examining Ash’s pale face. “How are you feeling?” he asked softly.

“I’m… okay,” Ash croaked.

He looked terrible to Goh. “Didn’t you realize you had a fever?”

“...Guess not.” He was smiling.

“By the way, I’m sorry for all that talk about Gengar’s curse,” Goh said. “I should’ve—”

Ash bolted upright in bed and Goh jolted. “That’s right! Where’s Gengar?”

His question was answered when an apple materialized out of thin air and bonked him on the head, followed closely by a pokéball.

“Gengar, be my partner!” Ash cried out, grinning so widely that Goh had to smile back, even if it wasn’t for him.

The ghost-type pokémon materialized by the door, giggling shyly, and Ash tossed the pokéball. It clicked, the catch completed, and Ash leapt out of bed to snatch up the newly occupied pokéball with glee.

A few minutes later, Goh found himself watching with mirth as Ash’s laughing face surfaced from a mountain of apples. “Gengar, what was that for?”

“I think it’s saying it wants you to rest up and get better soon,” Goh suggested, smiling.

“Oh! I can do that,” Ash exclaimed, biting into an apple with gusto before offering some to Pikachu.

Goh looked on in fond amusement as the two chattered away, munching on the apples. Ash was talking to Gengar as well as Pikachu, even though it wasn’t visible anymore and might not have even still been in the room. Ash’s face was still pale, but he was glowing. You wouldn’t have known he’d ever been sick in the first place, Goh thought idly.

Apparently deciding he’d had enough of Gengar’s apples, Ash struggled his way out of the pomaceous mountain and attempted to stand, immediately tipping forward, his face on a trajectory for a meet-cute with the floorboards.

Well. Scratch not being sick.

Goh rushed forward and caught him around the waist, pulling Ash’s closest arm over his shoulder.

“Jeez, take it easy for once, okay?” Goh chided. “You’re sick, remember? Does collapsing in the middle of downtown ring a bell for you?”

“Mm, sorry… ‘m fine, jus’ got dizzy for a sec…” Ash slurred, head rolling against Goh’s shoulder.

Goh’s pulse jumped at the proximity of Ash’s stupid feverish face. He turned away. Ash was totally going to give him all of the germs.

“Sure, whatever you say,” he muttered, guiding Ash back toward his bed and depositing him onto it in a sitting position. “Now sleep,” he commanded.

“Huh? But I—” Ash protested.

Goh interrupted him with a gentle shove to the chest, pushing him back onto the bed.

“Okay,” came the quiet concession, muffled by a pillow. Soon, Ash was snoring, Pikachu curled next to him on top of the covers.

Goh smiled warmly at the sight before a streak of purple flashed in his peripheral vision. He turned, peering up into the corner of the room where it met the ceiling, and there was Gengar, red eyes glowing softly.

“Gengar?” Goh said.

The pokémon giggled and gave him a familiar smile before vanishing. For some reason, Goh felt like he’d passed a test, which didn’t make sense, Goh thought indignantly, since _he’d been here first._ He sighed and turned back to Ash.

He supposed it couldn’t hurt to have two people looking after the trainwreck of a trainer. After all, Goh reconciled fondly, sometimes he felt like he needed all the help he could get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you tell i rushed over the scenes that were actually in the episode because i didnt want to write them lol  
> also i didnt rewatch it in order to write this so the dialogue is probably definitely not correct :3

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! <3


End file.
